Article

Frederick Ronald Hayes

Published Online February 5, 2008

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Frederick Ronald Hayes, biologist, science administrator (b at Parrsboro, NS 29 Apr 1904; d at Halifax 6 Sept 1982). As chairman of the FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD 1964-69, Hayes guided its expansion and increased links with the universities through grants and research collaboration.

Hayes, Frederick Ronald

Frederick Ronald Hayes, biologist, science administrator (b at Parrsboro, NS 29 Apr 1904; d at Halifax 6 Sept 1982). As chairman of the FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD 1964-69, Hayes guided its expansion and increased links with the universities through grants and research collaboration. His book The Chaining of Prometheus (1973) wittily and perceptively explored the subordination of Canadian science to governmental administration. Trained as a zoologist and chemical embryologist at Dalhousie and Liverpool universities (1922-29), he was associate, then full, professor, of zoology at Dalhousie (1930-64), founder and first director of its Institute of Oceanography (1959-64) and vice-president, academic (1963-64). His research using radioisotopes to study lake processes influenced many students. Hayes returned to Dalhousie as Killam research professor in 1969, founding its Institute of Environmental Studies in 1974.